As talks heat up on possible College Football Playoff expansion, one thing has flown slightly under the radar. And that’s the future of conference championship games.
Long a staple since the SEC popularized the league championship game back in 1992, conference championship games have been one of the pinnacles of each season. Teams work all year for the chance to win one.
Could that pursuit evaporate in the new landscape? Maybe.
“I think one conversation going on right now, Greg, is a philosophical one on conference championship games,” ESPN analyst Pete Thamel said on the McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning radio program. “We saw a decrease in relevancy of conference championship games last year, just simply put. And this is a lot like a little bit of a microcosm of college athletics in itself.”
The dilemma is simple. In the ongoing pursuit to squeeze more out of the entire enterprise, the game is changing in college football.
The sport has already been measurably transformed by the implementation of NIL reform and reworking of the transfer portal. Now the schedule itself is under the microscope.
And that conference championship games lost some steam in the first year of the 12-team playoff has only served to further call things into question. Is this the best model?
“The inevitable phasing out of relevancy of conference championship games, we have empirical evidence of it and it’s staring us right in the face,” Thamel said. “And do these leagues, which by the way, it’s very valuable inventory. It’s very valuable for the league. It’s a money-maker, huge money-maker, premium ticket, big event. Do they pivot and say with (College Football Playoff automatic qualifiers), which seemingly are on the way, do we do four play-in games and go 1-8, 2-7, etc., and then still have the, in case one of your top dogs gets upset, you still have the three at-large on the back end to sneak them in?”
The concept is one that the various college football think-tanks will look to tackle in the coming months. It’s not without downsides, should expansion require the hard sacrifice when it comes to conference championship games.
“That would be giving up a premium property to your television partner that would clearly want it,” Thamel said. “And it would also be giving up a big gate money-maker. And look, like, you guys have been to a lot of SEC Championship Games like I have. That’s an event, man. Whoever’s there owns Atlanta that weekend. Unwinding that is easy to say looking at a spreadsheet. It’s hard to emotionally unwind for something like that, even though seemingly we are on the course for these games being less relevant.”
Regardless, though, it is a point of conversation. There is a reality where conference championship games disappear altogether in the pursuit of a bigger and better College Football Playoff.
Thamel isn’t quite ready to throw in the towel on title games, though. Not yet.
“I think that’s a conversation that’s going to continue to evolve right now,” Thamel said. “I just, my opinion is I don’t honestly think we’ll get there. I think it will go, there will be a conference championship game with guarantees and then there will be play-in games, if you will, on the others.
“And for the ACC and the Big 12, Jim Phillips in the ACC has been pretty open about creating extra inventory. And, look, in an era where everyone’s trying to squeeze out the last dollar, it would make sense to have two play-in games over one conference championship game. Just bottom line financials.”
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